JP2010282312A - E-mail communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a new e-mail communication system capable of complementing e-mail contents more accurately, while minimizing a user's burden. <P>SOLUTION: A terminal apparatus 1 includes a function for searching e-mail text included in the outgoing e-mail to extract a keyword related to delight, anger, sorrow and pleasure emotions, a function for deciding an expression change parameter for changing an expression of portrait data 10 based on the keyword, a function for changing the expression of the portrait data 10 based on the portrait data 10 included in the incoming e-mail and the expression change parameter, and a function for displaying portrait data 10 after expression change included in the incoming e-mail on a screen together with the e-mail text. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a mail communication system that uses a portrait image generated from a face photograph of each individual as a communication expression tool that complements mail text.

  Conventionally, when a mail is transmitted using a terminal device such as a mobile phone, it is widely performed to transmit a sender's emotion and the like by attaching face photograph data to the mail. However, although the photographic data depends on the number of pixels of the photographed camera, the selected data format and size, etc., the amount of data is large, approximately several tens of kilobytes to several megabytes, and the communication cost borne by the user for transmission and reception is increased. There is a disadvantage to invite.

  Apart from this, email communication systems using avatars are also widely known. In Patent Document 1, an avatar is displayed on a mail screen of a receiving terminal that has received a mail, and is used as a communication expression tool that supplements a mail text by changing the density, color, and the like of the avatar. Here, avatar is an alternation of oneself on the web, and the user arbitrarily selects from various types of face part images, hairstyle images, clothes images, etc. prepared in advance on the Internet server, and combines them. In other words, it is a “dress-up doll”.

JP 2005-333538 A

  As described above, an avatar is a combination of a face part image, a hairstyle image, and the like, and many of these images are formed in the GIF format. It is easy to reduce the amount of data to the order of bytes. Therefore, the communication cost borne by the user can be reduced compared to the case of transmitting and receiving face photograph data, and the burden on the transmitting / receiving terminal and server can be suppressed.

  However, an avatar can be arbitrarily created by each person, can be created independently of each individual characteristic, and the personal characteristic rarely appears on the surface. In other words, the personal characteristics of the user who created it appear in the avatar, in other words, it is extremely rare or impossible for the user to create an avatar that closely resembles his / her face. I have to say that avatars have been created with hobbies and aspirations. For this reason, even if a mail recipient who receives a mail with an avatar pays attention to the personality of the avatar's own face, hairstyle, clothes, etc., it can be incorporated into the mail content of the mail sender from the facial expression of the avatar. It must be said that there is no way to capture the emotions of emotions and emotions that have been sent, and there is little relation between the email content and the avatar, and it is not possible to properly supplement the email content with an avatar. There was room for improvement in that point.

  However, if the mail sender creates a plurality of types of avatars according to emotions in advance and selects a type of avatar according to the content of the email every time the email is created, the above problem can be solved to some extent. However, it takes time to create a plurality of types of avatars according to emotions, and using different avatars increases the burden on the mail sender. Originally, in an environment where a majority of users who use only one type of avatar and a very small number of users who use appropriate avatars according to emotions are mixed, mail recipients always use their avatar expressions, etc. It is not considered to be focused, and an avatar cannot supplement email content properly.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a new mail communication system capable of complementing mail contents more appropriately while minimizing the burden on the user.

The present invention is directed to a mail communication system including a plurality of terminal devices 1 having a mail transmission / reception function, and a management server 3 connected to the terminal devices 1 via the Internet 2.
The management server 3 registers and manages the function of generating the portrait data 10 based on the user's facial photo data 11 sent from each terminal device 1, the portrait data 10 and the personal authentication information, A function of transmitting these to each terminal device 1.
The terminal device 1 searches a mail text included in an outgoing mail, extracts a keyword related to emotion, and determines a facial expression change parameter for changing the facial expression of the portrait data based on the keyword. The function, the function to change the facial expression of the portrait data based on the portrait data and facial expression change parameter included in the received email, and the facial portrait data after the facial expression change included in the received email are displayed on the screen together with the email text With functionality.

The present invention is also directed to a mail communication system including a plurality of terminal devices 1 having a mail transmission / reception function, and a management server 3 connected to the terminal devices 1 via the Internet 2.
The management server 3 registers and manages the function of generating the portrait data 10 based on the user's facial photo data 11 sent from each terminal device 1, the portrait data 10 and the personal authentication information, A function of transmitting these to each terminal device 1, a function of searching for mail text included in the outgoing mail sent from the terminal device 1 and extracting keywords related to emotions, and caricature data based on the keywords 10 has a function of determining facial expression change parameters for changing the facial expression and changing the facial expression data 10 facial expression.
The terminal device 1 has a function of displaying on the screen together with the mail text the portrait data after the facial expression change included in the received mail.

  The terminal device 1 or the management server 3 extracts keywords related to the four categories of “joy”, “anger”, “sorrow”, and “easy” from the mail text, and counts the number of keywords in each category. Then, it is possible to select the most frequently counted classification of facial expression change parameter and change the facial expression of the portrait data 10 based on the facial expression change parameter.

  The terminal device 1 or the management server 3 may be provided with a function of changing the facial expression of the portrait data 10 based on the secular change from the creation time of the portrait data.

  The portrait data 10 is stored in the IC card 4 owned and managed by the user together with the user authentication information, and the terminal device 1 has a function of reading the portrait data 10 from the IC card 4 and an IC card. 4 can be provided with a function of performing personal authentication based on the authentication information read from 4.

  In the mail communication system according to the present invention, each user creates his / her portrait data 10 in advance prior to creating the mail. That is, in advance, the user transmits the facial photograph data 11 from the terminal device 1 to the management server 3, and the management server 3 generates the portrait data 10 from the facial photograph data 11, and combines this with the authentication information. A reply is sent to the terminal device 1. When the user creates an e-mail, the terminal device 1 searches e-mail text included in the e-mail, extracts keywords related to emotions, and determines facial expression change parameters based on the keywords. Then, the facial expression change parameter and the portrait data 10 are sent together with the mail text to the recipient who is the transmission partner via the mail server. When receiving the mail from the mail server, the terminal device 1 on the receiver side changes the facial expression of the portrait data 10 based on the facial expression change parameter included in the received mail, and the facial portrait after the facial expression change is displayed on the screen together with the mail text. indicate.

  As described above, according to the mail communication system according to the present invention, the portrait of the user who is the mail sender is displayed together with the mail text on the screen of the terminal device 1 on the receiving side. Compared to the case where the sender is recognized based only on the display of the sender included in the received mail, it is possible to recognize the sender more intuitively, and the closeness between the sender and the receiver Can contribute to improvement. That is, by giving an item called a caricature of a sender to an e-mail that tends to become inorganic due to personalization, it is possible to provide a mail communication system that gives each mail individuality and is highly interesting. Since the facial expression of the sender's caricature displayed on the terminal device 1 on the receiver side changes according to the emotion embedded in the email text, direct emotion transmission is possible compared to the case where the content is expressed only by text. Compared to the mode of displaying only a portrait with no facial expression, it is possible to complement the contents of the mail more accurately. In this respect as well, each mail is given a personality and excels in email communication. A system can be provided. Depending on the mail text, the facial expression of the sender can be changed automatically, reducing the burden on the sender when composing the mail, and versatile and practical mail communication. It is also superior in that it can provide a system.

The function of searching e-mail texts to extract keywords related to emotions and emotions, the function of determining facial expression change parameters for changing the facial expression of caricature data, and the like can be given to the terminal device 1 on the transmission side ( Claim 1) can also be given to the management server 3 (claim 2). When these functions are given to the terminal device 1 on the transmission side, the load on the management server 3 can be reduced. There is no need to prepare a dedicated e-mail address, and it is also excellent in that each user can use a conventional e-mail address.
When these functions are added to the management server 3, the load on the terminal device 1 side can be reduced.

  When multiple types of keywords representing “joy”, “anger”, “sorrow”, and “easy” are mixed in one e-mail text, the number of keywords belonging to each category is counted, and the largest number is counted. Select the facial expression change parameter of the classification (counted the most). That is, if there are four keywords belonging to the “joy” category and two keywords belonging to the “easy” category in one mail text, the expression change parameter of “joy” is selected. This makes it possible to change the facial expression of the portrait data 10 more accurately.

  It is considered extremely rare that each user updates the portrait data 10 frequently. Normally, once the portrait data 10 is created, it is assumed that the user continues to use the data for several years. For this reason, as the user ages, the user's own face and the caricature become different from each other, and as a result, the function of complementing the mail content by the caricature may be impaired. Therefore, as in the present invention, the terminal device 1 or the management server 3 is provided with a function of changing the facial expression of the portrait data 10 with age based on the secular change from the time of creation of the portrait data 10. Even if the caricature data 10 has not been updated over several years, the caricature data 10 can be automatically changed according to the year, so by adding a facial expression change parameter to this, the caricature displayed with the mail text can be more You can get close to the face of the current user.

  When the caricature data 10 is stored in the IC card 4 together with the user authentication information, the security of the mail communication system is greatly improved compared to the case where the personal authentication is performed only with the ID number and the password. In addition, unauthorized use of email such as spoofing can be surely prevented.

It is a block diagram which shows the mail communication system which concerns on this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the production | generation method of the portrait data from face photograph data. It is a figure for demonstrating the production | generation method of portrait data. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a communication tool. (A)-(c) is a figure which shows the display mode of the communication tool displayed on the terminal device of a transmission side. It is a figure which shows the display mode of the communication tool displayed on the terminal device of the transmission side of a receiving side. It is a flowchart for demonstrating mail transmission operation | movement by the terminal device of a transmission side. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the mail reception operation | movement by the terminal device of the receiving side.

  1 to 8 show an embodiment of a mail communication system according to the present invention. This mail communication system includes a plurality of terminal devices 1 such as a PC (Personal Computer) and a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) having a mail transmission / reception function, and a management server connected to these terminal devices 1 via the Internet 2. 3 is composed.

The terminal device 1 includes a central processing unit (CPU), a communication unit for connecting to the Internet, a storage unit such as a hard disk or an SSD (Solid State Drive) for storing various programs and data, and the operation of the CPU. The RAM (Random Access Memory) that is the area and the ROM (Read) that stores the initial program, etc.
Only Memory). The communication unit means a wired or wireless LAN card for performing communication with an optical terminal unit (ONU) or an ADSL modem. In the terminal device 1, a contact / non-contact card reader / writer 5 for reading information from the IC card 4 or writing information to the IC card 4 is built in or externally attached. The terminal device 1 preferably includes various interfaces such as a USB terminal for transmitting / receiving data to / from peripheral devices, and the external card reader / writer 5 is also connected via the USB terminal. Can do. However, the terminal device 1 may have a short-range wireless communication function such as Bluetooth. In the storage unit, a mailer communication tool downloaded from a management server or the like is installed in advance.

  The management server 3 includes a portrait data generation unit 31 that generates portrait data (see FIG. 3) from the user's facial photograph data (see FIG. 2) sent from each terminal device 1 via the Internet 2. It comprises a database area 32 for storing the portrait data and the user's personal authentication information linked to registration management, and a software storage area 33 in which communication tools are stored. In the database area, a parts list made up of parts data such as eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth and contour as shown in FIG. 3 is stored in advance. When there is a request from the terminal device 1, the management server 3 reads the communication tool from the software storage area 33 and transmits it to the terminal device 1. However, when distributing communication tools, a peer-to-peer method can be adopted.

  The IC card 4 read / written by the card reader / writer 5 of the terminal device 1 has a data storage area in the IC chip, and is sent from the management server 3 in addition to the user personal authentication information to the storage area. The caricature data is stored, and the terminal device 1 starts up (loads) the communication tool when the personal authentication information read from the IC card 4 matches the personal authentication information of the management server 3. However, when the personal authentication information read from the IC card 4 matches the personal authentication information stored in the communication tool, it may be configured such that mail can be transmitted / received or mail can be created.

  In the mail communication system of this embodiment, first, the user's face photo data 11 (see FIG. 2) is transmitted from the terminal device 1 to the management server 3 in advance to generate the portrait data 10 (see FIG. 3). Keep it. Prior to the generation of the caricature data 10, the newly registered user is asked to register personal information such as name, gender, date of birth, and e-mail address. 11 or generation of the portrait data 10 is performed. As the authentication operation, it is possible to send out an authentication mail to the mail address input at the time of registration and access to an authentication page attached to the authentication mail. Further, the use of a Juki card as the IC card 4 is requested, and the public personal authentication information stored in advance in the card is read by the terminal device 1 via the card reader / writer 5. You may be allowed to confirm your name, gender, date of birth, etc. by sending it.

2 and 3 show a method for generating the portrait data 10 from the facial photograph data 11. First, as shown in FIG. 2, the portrait data generation unit searches the face photograph data 11 sent from the terminal device 1, extracts the following elements, and quantifies them.
(A) The center line of the vertical axis of the face, the center of both surfaces, the line connecting the top of the nose and the center of the mouth (B) The top line of the face including the hairstyle (C) The top line of the contour of the face (head: assumed)
(D) Eyebrow centerline, eyebrow position, shape and length (E) Centerline of face horizontal axis, eye centerline, eye position, shape and size (F) Top line of nose, position of nose , Shape and lateral length (G) mouth center line, mouth position, shape, lateral length (H) face bottom line (I) mouth edge horizontal line and contour intersection position (J) mouth Crossing position of centerline line and contour (K) Crossing position of vertical line of mouth and contour (L) Horizontal length of contour

  Next, the management server 3 extracts part data that matches the shape of each element (A) to (L) previously extracted from the parts list (see FIG. 3) stored in the database area 32 as a database. , And enlarge / reduce or rotate each part data. Also, a hairstyle is extracted from the face photo data. Next, the portrait data 10 as shown in FIG. 3 is generated by superimposing the hairstyle data and each part data in layers.

  The management server 3 stores the generated portrait data 10 in the database area 32 by linking them to personal authentication information including the name, gender, date of birth, mail address, and the like. In addition, the portrait data 10 is returned to the terminal device 1. Before and after the authentication operation, in response to a request from the terminal device 1, the communication tool is read from the software storage area 33 and transmitted to the terminal device 1. Upon receiving the communication tool, the terminal device 1 installs it in the storage area.

  When the personal authentication is confirmed by the authentication operation using the IC card 4, the terminal device 1 loads the communication tool. When the communication tool is launched, the tool is displayed on the screen of the terminal device 1.

The configuration of the communication tool is shown in FIG. This communication tool includes an information storage area 20 for storing caricature data, personal authentication information, and information on already registered mail addresses, and a mail storage area for storing outgoing mail, incoming mail, unsent mail, and the like. 21, a data area 23 including three types of areas, a keyword storage area 22 for storing a search keyword, which will be described later, an e-mail creation unit 24 responsible for e-mail creation and transmission / reception, and e-mail text of the created e-mail On the other hand, a search unit 25 that searches whether there is a word that matches the previous keyword, and the search result by the search unit 25 are four types of “joy”, “anger”, “sorrow”, and “easy”. A counting unit 26 that counts the number of hits belonging to each category, and based on the count result by the counting unit 26, And a parameter determining unit 27 for determining the expression change parameter for changing the information. In addition, the communication tool reads out the caricature data of the sender included in the received mail, changes the facial expression of the caricature according to the facial expression change parameter, and displays the changed caricature along with the mail text on the screen. The face display unit 28 is provided. The communication tool also includes an editing unit 29 for editing the user's own portrait data. The editing unit 29 includes a function for changing the facial parts of the caricature data, accessories, background images, and the like, a function for changing the facial expression, a motion function for giving movement to the facial expression and the like according to the input operation of the user. .
In addition, the parameter determination unit 27 measures the date of birth stored in the information storage area and the elapsed time from the creation of the portrait data, and has a function of changing the expression change parameter based on this. I have.

  A method for operating the communication tool configured as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6 and the flowcharts of FIGS. First, after the user designates the text input area on the screen as shown in FIG. 5A and performs the mail text input operation to create the mail text (S1 in FIG. 7), the text is confirmed. When the button is pressed (YES in S2), the search unit 25 reads the keyword from the keyword storage area 22, and detects whether or not the created mail text includes a word related to the facial expression of the emotional emotion. (S3). If a word that matches the keyword is included (YES in S4), it is detected whether the word belongs to “joy”, “anger”, “sorrow”, or “easy” and counted. The unit 26 counts the number of words for each category, compares the total number of counts of each category, and selects the most frequently counted category (S5). When selection of the most frequently counted category is completed, the parameter determination unit 27 determines a facial expression change parameter (S6), applies the parameter to the portrait data, and displays the changed portrait on the screen (S7). . If a word that matches the keyword is not found in the mail text (NO in S4), the portrait before the change is displayed as it is (S7).

  The facial expression change parameter will be described in detail. For example, the facial expression change parameter belonging to the category of “joy” includes commands such as narrowing the eyes, lowering the eyes, and raising the mouth. The facial expression change parameter consisting of the “anger” classification includes commands such as raising the eyes and clenching the mouth. If you want to add age reduction / aging elements to the caricature data based on the date of birth information and the period of time since the creation of the caricature data, for example, commands such as putting wrinkles or changing the skin tone Add a facial expression change parameter consisting of

  The user can edit the portrait after the expression change (YES in S8). Specifically, it is conceivable to change the facial expression itself of the caricature by changing the facial expression change parameter. Moreover, when wearing clothes or accessories, these can be changed. You can also change the background. You can also add actions such as shaking your hand or tilting your neck. These editing operations are executed when the user inputs a command via the editing unit 29.

  Before or after the above-described creation or editing of the mail text, the user directly inputs the mail in the “destination” field, or reads and selects the registered mail address from the information storage area. After confirming the input of the mail address of the destination (YES in S10), when the mail transmission button is pressed, the mail creating unit 24 transmits the mail to the mail address of the destination input in the destination field (S11). ). In addition to text data that is an email text, the email includes portrait data and the previous facial expression change parameter. Data and parameters related to clothes, accessories and movement are also included.

  As shown in FIG. 8, the terminal device 1 on the receiving side accesses the mail server and receives the mail (S21). Specifically, similarly to the above, the user on the receiving side performs an authentication operation using the IC card 4, loads the communication tool, and the communication tool accesses the mail server and receives the mail. Such a reception operation is automatically performed when the communication tool is loaded, and is also executed when the reception button of the communication tool is pressed.

  When the received mail is selected (S22), the communication tool reads out the caricature data of the sender included in the received mail, changes the facial expression of the caricature according to the facial expression change parameter, and the changed caricature. Is displayed together with the mail text (S23). In other words, when the facial expression change parameter of “Ki” is included in the received mail, the eye layer and mouth layer of the portrait data are extracted, the eyes are lowered, the mouth is raised, and the person smiles. Change the facial expression of the caricature. If data and parameters such as clothes, accessories, and background are included, these are also displayed along with the portrait. If a parameter related to an action such as tilting the head is included, the action is attached to the portrait.

  Various data such as clothes data, accessories, and background images are stored in the database area 32 of the management server 3, and the user can arbitrarily download these data to decorate the caricature. be able to. In addition to the portrait data generated from the user's own facial photograph data, the portrait data of celebrities and the like are stored in the database area 32, and the user can arbitrarily input the portrait data of the celebrities and the like. You may be able to download it.

  As described above, according to the mail communication system according to the present embodiment, the portrait of the user who is the mail sender is displayed together with the mail text on the screen of the terminal device 1 on the receiving side. In addition, it is possible to recognize the sender more intuitively than when the sender is recognized based only on the display of the sender included in the received mail. Contribute to intimacy. By giving an item called a portrait of the sender, it is possible to give individuality to each mail, and it can also be expected to improve interest. Since the facial expression of the sender's caricature displayed on the terminal device 1 on the receiver side changes according to the emotion embedded in the email text, direct emotion transmission is possible compared to the case where the content is expressed only by text. This is possible, and the mail content can be complemented more accurately than in the case where only the facial expression with no expression is displayed. The facial expression of the sender can be automatically changed according to the mail text, and the burden on the sender when composing the mail can be suppressed. Therefore, it is possible to provide a mail communication system with excellent versatility and practicality.

  A dedicated e-mail address is provided because the sender's terminal device has a function to search e-mail texts and extract keywords related to emotions and emotions, and a function to determine facial expression change parameters for changing the facial expression in the caricature data. There is no need to do so, and each user can use an e-mail address that is conventionally held. Therefore, in this respect as well, a versatile mail communication system can be provided. Mail can be transmitted and received between users without using a dedicated mail server, and a highly versatile mail communication system can also be provided in this respect.

  Since the facial expression of the portrait data 10 is changed based on the secular change from the creation time of the portrait data 10, even if the portrait data 10 is not updated over several years, the portrait data 10 is automatically converted according to the year. Can be changed. As a result, the portrait displayed together with the mail text can be brought closer to the face of the current user (sender), and more appropriate mail content can be complemented using the portrait.

  If the caricature data 10 is stored in the IC card 4 together with the user authentication information, the security of the mail communication system is improved and impersonation is improved as compared with the case where the identity authentication is performed only with the ID number and the password. It is possible to reliably prevent unauthorized use of e-mails.

  In the above embodiment, each terminal device 1 is provided with a portrait data generation function, a search function for searching for mail text included in a transmission mail, a facial expression change parameter determination function, and the like, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the management server Thirdly, keywords related to the four types of caricature data generation function, search function, facial expression change parameter function, “joy”, “anger”, “sorrow”, “easy” are extracted from the email text, A function of counting the number of keywords, a function of changing the facial expression of the portrait data 10 based on the secular change from the creation time of the portrait data 10 can be provided. In this case, it is possible to remarkably reduce the burden on the terminal device 1, and therefore, it is particularly suitable for constructing a system in which the mobile phone having inferior processing capability is used as the terminal device 1.

1 Terminal Device 2 Internet 3 Management Server 4 IC Card 10 Caricature Data 11 Face Photo Data

Claims (5)

In a mail communication system comprising a plurality of terminal devices (1) having a mail transmission / reception function, and a management server (3) connected to the terminal device (1) via the Internet (2),
The management server (3) generates a portrait data (10) based on the user's face photo data (11) sent from each terminal device (1), and the portrait data (10). It has a function of registering and managing personal authentication information and transmitting these to each terminal device (1),
The terminal device (1) searches a mail text included in an outgoing mail, extracts a keyword related to emotion, and a facial expression for changing the facial expression data (10) based on the keyword. A function for determining a change parameter, a function for changing the expression of the portrait data (10) based on the portrait data and the expression change parameter included in the received mail, and a portrait data after the expression change included in the received mail, A mail communication system comprising a function for displaying on a screen together with mail text. In a mail communication system comprising a plurality of terminal devices (1) having a mail transmission / reception function, and a management server (3) connected to the terminal device (1) via the Internet (2),
The management server (3) generates a portrait data (10) based on the user's face photo data (11) sent from each terminal device (1), and the portrait data (10). The personal authentication information is registered and managed, and the function of transmitting the information to each terminal device (1) and the mail text included in the outgoing mail sent from the terminal device (1) are searched, and the emotions are related. A function of extracting a keyword, a function of determining an expression change parameter for changing the expression of the portrait data based on the keyword, and a function of changing the expression of the portrait data;
The terminal device (1) is provided with a function of displaying on the screen together with the mail text the portrait data (10) after the facial expression change included in the received mail. The terminal device (1) or the management server (3) extracts keywords related to the four categories of “joy”, “anger”, “sorrow”, and “easy” from the mail text, and the keywords for each category. Count the number of
The mail communication system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the expression count change parameter of the most frequently counted classification is selected, and the expression of the portrait data (10) is changed based on the expression change parameter.   The terminal device (1) or the management server (3) has a function of changing a facial expression of the portrait data (10) based on a secular change from the time of creation of the portrait data (10). 4. The mail communication system according to any one of 3. The caricature data (10) is stored in the IC card (4) owned and managed by the user together with the user authentication information,
The said terminal device (1) is provided with the function to read portrait data from an IC card (4), and the function to perform identity authentication based on the authentication information read from the IC card (4). The mail communication system described in any of the above.

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